What JK Rowling did (and didn't do) for us

Literary agent Rosemary Canter reports that JK Rowling has not catapulted children’s writing into the big time – yet.



From a talk at the SCBWI conference “Oceans Apart, United by Story” on 4-6 July 2003, in Madrid, Spain



Aspiring writers who think JK Rowling has opened the doors of the children’s book world to the big league should take a cold shower. The blip in children’s book sales is totally Harry Potter’s fault, reports Rosemary Canter. “(The sales figures) don’t necessarily mean that the market is expanding, though there is a hope that Harry Potter will make people buy more books.”



In truth, when you take Harry Potter out of the equation, you might even find that sales are down.



For the writer who has yet to invent the latest blockbuster, it is going to be the usual slog. Canter quotes Jacklyn Wilson, the prolific author of the Tracy Beaker books which have been adapted for television: “It took me 20 years to become an overnight success.”



The fact is, most authors can only expect advances of £1,500 to £3,000. “The only way to survive is quantity – except for licensing possibilities, there is no money to be made,” says Canter, “I deal with endless contracts for tiny amounts of money. I was not the most popular person in my agency.”



That’s the bad news.



The good news is that JK Rowling, though failing to bring plenty to aspiring children’s authors, has at least won some prestige for our industry.



“In 1997, children’s fiction was a publishing backwater – the sums of money to be made were not sexy,” says Canter. “And now our tiny world has been shaken awake!”



With the advent of Rowling, and the success of authors such as Garth Nix, Jonathan Stroud and Ian Hearn, “there are now serious financial expectations for the children’s department”, says Canter. Rowling has led the way to a sea change in the children’s book industry:

• For the first time, good writers can command reasonable advances – instead of £3,000, a writer might get £5,000
• There has been an explosion of formidable writing talent
• Almost no editor in the world would dare to say they don’t like fantasy!
  
  

In an interview with SCBWI’s Bridget Strevens Marzo, Canter said: “I’ve been working in the children's book world for 24 years now, and I think this is the most exciting of times. Children’s writers have a higher status now, perhaps higher than they have ever had, and the real possibility of earning a good living. Historical fiction and fantasy are, once again, hugely popular, and there is a glorious vitality about fiction overall . . . it’s a wonderful time to be involved.”



Canter has this advice for aspiring writers for children:

• Be clear about what your talent is. Don’t confuse the issue by showing a different area of your work
• Copious amounts of research will stand you well – not for your manuscript, but on publishers who might buy your work. “Study the publishers’ catalogues closely”
• Target a market.
• A good title goes a long way
• A good letter will show your personality, wit, style, lyricism – “I’d like to give one piece of advice to writers looking for an agent: the letter you send is also a piece of writing”.
• Review and revise your manuscript before sending anything to an editor. “Authors need to make the best first impression possible.”
  
  

"I am always, always looking for new talent," Rosemary says. "Finding it is one of the most seductive aspects of a fascinating job."

Rosemary says she is always open to queries by mail rather than by email or phone. "I enjoy the many facets of being an agent. I like to help writers develop saleable material for publishers, but not get further involved in the editorial process. I think it's my job to be a businesswoman:to get the best possible deals and contracts for my clients, to help with legal advice, where necessary, to give strategic advice on careers, and to make suggestions on individual projects ." She was an editor for 17 years until she was offered the opportunity to build up a list of children's writers and illustrators for PFD, one of Europe's leading literary and talent agencies. Submission guidelines are posted on the website.

Anne Fine on Writing

To become a writer, says Anne Fine, first of all, you have to write.



From the PEN Masterclass in Children’s Writing, at the London International Book Fair in Olympia, 17 March 2003



“Not being in the mood is no excuse,” Anne Fine says, quoting Bertrand Russell: “Nothing that you write is ever as bad as you fear or as good as you think.” She also likes to quote children’s author Allan Ahlberg: “The hardest bit about writing is getting your bum onto the seat.”



FINDING THE TIME. Says Fine: “It is important to decide what a reasonable amount of time for you to write is. Mothers might have to work around a baby’s naptimes or during school hours. But once you have decided on a realistic writing time, stick to it.”



NEVER SHOW YOUR WORK TO A FAMILY MEMBER. This is purely for self-preservation, Fine jokes. “Even if they say it is very good, there is still something about the way they say it that makes you want to kill them.”



WHAT TO WRITE. “Good writing is good writing whether for children or for adults,” says Fine. “But in adult writing you are seen as part of your audience.” “You can probably write about anything; but it is how you write about it and what you shine your spotlight on that matters.”



WHAT CHILDREN LIKE. “Children like to identify with something in the book,” says Fine. “We must write about emotions that a child can recognise.” In this sense, she says, “plots are over-rated because once a child has invested in a character, they will see a book through.” Be aware of the physicality of normal childish response, she warns. “Avoid processed adult reflection.”



BE AWARE OF YOUR AUDIENCE'S READING ABILITIES. Six to nine year olds may struggle with the mechanics of reading, and you should be careful to avoid flashbacks and the subtleties of time schemes” when writing for this age. For older readers, “you should write a book you yourself would like to read.” Having said that, “never overestimate the reader’s knowledge and never underestimate the reader’s intelligence”. “There is a fine line between being magical and being plain silly,” says Fine. “If it’s real, keep it real.”



This piece appeared in Words & Pictures, the newsletter of SCBWI British Isles Region, Autumn 2003



Anne Fine advises would-be writers to “read, read, read. The practice for writing (whatever teachers say!) is not writing, but reading. If you don't have a library card (and not in the teapot on the mantelpiece) you cannot be serious. Then as Philip Larkin says, write the book you yourself would most like to read”. She should know, she was the Children’s Laureate from 2001 to 2003, and is one of the most successful children’s writers in Britain today. Fine was awarded an OBE in the Queen's birthday honours list in 2003 for services to Literature. Her most well known book is Madam Doubtfire, which became a hit film. Other well known titles are The Tulip Touch, Flour Babies, and Bill's New Frock. She has also won a number of awards including the Carnegie Medal and the Publishing News' Children's Author of the Year in 1990 and 1993.

The Making of the Gruffalo

Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo bends all the rules for writing marketable picture books

‘How a picture book comes into being’, workshop during Writer’s Day 2004 ('Go Fish! Creating Stories that Really Hook)' of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators British Isles in Winchester, United Kingdom on 6 November 2004

Silly old fox
Doesn’t he know?
There’s no such thing as a –

And Julia Donaldson tried Snoog, Margle jing, Snargle, Snaple. But these were not easy to rhyme no matter how one twisted and turned the phrases. So it had to be something that rhymed with “know” – Gruffalo!

Thus was a children’s classic born – through the exigencies of rhyme. This despite the fact that children’s book publishers in the UK actively discourage rhyming texts to increase a book’s chances of translation. “A co-edition allows publishers to recoup costs on picture books, which are very expensive to produce,” says one editor.

And yet, and yet.

Donaldson’s engaging verses have recouped the publisher’s costs many times over, and almost all 28 translations across the world do rhyme.

Donaldson as a workshop speaker is as quirky and captivating as her books. She begins by taking up her guitar and singing a song, forgetting the lyrics, but never mind, and enjoining bemused attendees to join in the chorus. The room is littered with books and crumpled scraps of illustration that she rifles through to illustrate her talk before giving up, saying, “Ah well, it will turn up later.” Then she organises a play-acting session – recruiting the novelist Malorie Blackman to play the fox and various other would-be illustrators and writers to act out the roles of the snake, the owl and the gruffalo. She, of course, is the star of the production – the mouse, in all her squeaky glory, pattering up and down the aisles. At the end of the workshop, during the question and answer session, she holds a hand up and asks the audience to wait while she whips out her hearing aid. “I can’t really hear,” she apologises.

It may not be a straightforward lesson in the craft of picture books but one certainly can’t help falling in love with the charm of it all.

Indeed, Donaldson fell into writing rather by mistake. “I wasn’t trying to write a picture book,” she says of her first title A Squash and a Squeeze. “I was trying to write a song!” She wrote the song for children’s television and ten years later a publisher approached her to turn it into a picture book.

But that first book did not open the golden gates to children’s publishing. “I could paper the house with rejection letters,” she says ruefully.

Characteristically, The Gruffalo emerged out of a project that was not intended to become a picture book.

“I had been asked to write some little plays based on some regular tales,” says Donaldson. “When the children were little, we used to have a story tape about a Chinese girl and a tiger. The tiger follows her through the jungle and all the animals run away making the tiger think that they are afraid of the girl, when they are actually afraid of him.”

Donaldson began writing the play but soon changed her mind. “It was too good. I thought, this is the germ of a picture book. I don’t know why, but one day, eighteen months later, I decided to start the book.”

Originally the monster of the story was a tiger. “I had decided that the mouse would meet specific predators first and then trick them somehow, stop them from eating him, by saying he’s going to meet this tiger. I was writing away but then it became really hard when I had to think of words that rhymed with tiger.”

He ought to know
He really should
There are no tigers
In this wood


But this was as far as the rhyming went. “I thought if I created an imaginary creature, it would be easier to rhyme it.”

Once the gruffalo was created, she had to work out how the mouse manages to discourage all the predators from eating him. One of her children, reading a draught of the piece, asked, “Why didn’t they just eat him right away?”

Thus some of the most (literally) delicious moments in the story “came out of problems with the plot”. When the predators, not believing that the mouse had a monster friend, ask him: “Where are you meeting him?” The mouse quickly replies, “HERE – and his favourite food is … roasted fox, owl ice cream, snake …”

When Donaldson was ready to give up on the text – “I was sick of it, I thought I could never publish this book!” – one of her children gave her a gentle push. “Go on, Mum. I think it’s good.”

But once Donaldson finished the book, there was the problem of getting it published.

With the first publisher she approached, a year went by with no word. Her husband suggested that she send the text to Axel Scheffler, the well-known illustrator, “to see if what he thinks of it”. Though Donaldson’s name has now become inextricably tied to Scheffler, she did not meet him until much later.

“Literally a week after I wrote Axel, I got a letter from Alison Green, saying ‘This letter might take you a bit by surprise’ and asking for the right to publish it ‘even if Axel decides not to illustrate it’!” Donaldson remembers leaping about in the room with joy.

“The best bit of all,” she says, “was going nyaah nyaah to the other publishers!”

Interestingly, the editors did not change a single word of Donaldson’s rhyming text, the only memorable issue being whether the animals should be wearing clothes or not.

Says Donaldson, “I suppose the lesson to be learned is: don’t give up when someone is sitting on something!”

Julia Donadson’s writing career started when she was a penniless student in Paris and went busking. Busking led to song-writing which led to writing rhyming picture books. The Gruffalo and Room on a Broom have won many prizes and regularly top the UK picture book bestseller charts. Julia is also the author of the popular Princess Mirror-Belle stories and several short novels, including Giants and Joneses, which is to be made into film by Warner Brothers.